If you explained “playing for the punt” to someone who knows nothing about football, and had to use an idiom/meme/analogy to do so, what would you use?

Answers from AoG:

Tom Stephenson: As a lawyer, I can tell you there are some lawyers who basically aren’t trying to win at trial. They won’t come out and say that, and I wouldn’t say they’re intentionally tanking the trial, but they know they’re not getting their guy off so they’re just trying to set up an appeal — which means, raise ten billion objections throughout the trial to “preserve error.